HMRC’s Foyle House closing in 2020/21

Kevin Mullan

The tax office will be closing 10 offices in Northern Ireland between 2016/17 and 2020/21.

HMRC says it is phasing in the closures over five years to allow staff time to make choices for their future and reduce the number of possible redundancies.

A new regional centre will be based in Belfast.

Lin Homer, HMRC’s Chief Executive, said: “HMRC is committed to modern, regional centres serving every region and nation in the UK, with skilled and varied jobs and development opportunities, while also ensuring jobs are spread throughout the UK and not concentrated in London.

“HMRC has too many expensive, isolated and outdated offices. This makes it difficult for us to collaborate, modernise our ways of working, and make the changes we need to transform our service to customers and clamp down further on the minority who try to cheat the system.

“The new regional centre in Belfast will bring our staff together in more modern and cost-effective buildings in an area with lower rent. It will also make a big contribution to the economy of Northern Ireland providing high-quality, skilled jobs and supporting the Government’s commitment to a national recovery that benefits all parts of the UK.”

The changes will enable HMRC to give customers the modern services they now expect at a lower cost to the taxpayer, meeting the Government’s challenge for all departments to do more with less.

HMRC will consult staff and other interested groups on the best way to carry out this transition. Where staff are not based in or near a proposed or existing regional centre, they will be given a range of options and will have time to consider and discuss their future with HMRC.